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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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I'MTED STATES OF AMERICA. 




NGLISH KINGS IN A NUT- 
SHELL # AN AID TO THE 
MEMORY # BY GAIL HAMILTON 







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NEW YORK • CINCINNATI ■ CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

1893 



87 






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Copyright, 1885, by The Century Company. 
Copyright, 1893, by American Book Company. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

''WASHINGTON 



Iprintefc b^ 

"Cdm. Uvtson 

■Wcw l>orfe, "O. S. H. 



PREFACE. 



SjSfl^OR a brief but happy moment my path once led along- 
feiSo! side that of a Fair Ladye, a very little lady, who was 
studying English history, and was ever setting her world astir 
by asking if Henry the Third was the son of Henry the 
Second, or who came next to Edward the Fourth. 

For her convenience, and, to be quite frank, for my own, 
I wrote these rhymes. The little lady has grown so learned 
now that she no longer needs them, but walks among kings 
and queens with equal step as one who has come to her 
own. Therefore I give them over to the little folk universal 
with my heartiest good will. 

The verses include all the English monarchs, their relation 
to their successors, the time and length of each reign, and 



one or two prominent events or prominent names that 
marked its course. Whoever commits the verses to memory 
will therefore have a convenient little epitome of English 
history always at command. 

To the illustrations, for which I can claim no credit, I may 
be allowed to call attention. They are not only refined 
and delicate in point of art, but they are conceived and 
arranged in the true historic spirit. They not only repeat 
and intensify, but enlarge, the story of the text, and thus add 
a distinct and special value to my booklet. It is to gratify 
myself that I make this public acknowledgment to the artist. 

I beg to call especial attention to the fact that these verses 
were written and published in another form in February, 1885. 

Gail Hamilton. 

January, 1893. 




ONE * 




Hastings- 






With a Saxon King's word and a Norman Duke's sword 
Came WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, leading his 

horde, 
In ten sixty-six, — 




W iLLiam 11 



9 — 



— twice crowned, to make sure 
To his son, WILLIAM RUFUS, his throne should 

inure, — 
A soldier, a statesman, a ruffian, whom fate 
In the New Forest stew by the hand of his mate; 
Brought to England a child, crowned in ten eighty-seven, 
(If Heaven save the mark !) arrow-sent into heaven ! 




THtWhlTE YH'P. 



1 1 — 



Next HENRY, his brother, — husband, father, and son 

Of Matilda, three women whose names were but one; 

Called Beauclerc for his lore, yet at logical feud, 

When not in alliance, with Anselm the Good. 

He witnessed young Oxford fare forth to renown, 

With the century's close receiving his crown; 

But having no son, of his William bereft 

By the waves, to his daughter his kingdom he left, 

In the year thirty-five, as he fondly believed; 

But, with all his fine learning, the King was deceived, 




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« 
« 



Ur% 



— 13 



For sister Adela's son, STEPHEN, refused 

To account himself other than very ill used; 

And as England elected him, daughter Matilda 

Found nothing but title-deeds whereon to build a 

Firm throne for her race, through nineteen troubled years, 

When Stephen, the winning but weak, calmed her fears 

By departing this life; — 



— 15 — 



— and her own boy was reckoned 
The sole King of England, as HENRY THE SECOND, 

Of legal repute, with little to fleck it 

But the ill-advised murder of Thomas a Becket. 

His youngest son bad, and his oldest departed, 

In the year eighty-nine he sank down broken-hearted; 



i7 



And RICHARD, his third son, rough, bluff absentee, 

Came home twice to be crowned, then roamed off over sea: 

Crusader and captive, betrothed to young Alice, — 

But bold Berengaria shared his sea-palace; 

Not only the Heart but the head of a Lion, 

He found, like his father, no home throne to die on; 



Whose death to his base brother JOHN power did bring, 
Being thus, in ten years, third Plantagenet King. 
Him his own barons forced all our freedom to cede, 
When he signed Magna Charta at green Runnymede; 



21 



But his fighting was stopped in twelve hundred sixteen, 
And his small HENRY THIRD appeared on the scene. 
Fierce quarrels with Leicester, his brother-in-law, 
And prison and blood, his first forty years saw; 




Edwapcl I . 
1272. — 1307. 




(oncjue 5 t-:- 



— 23 — 



Then victorious peace until seventy-two, 
When EDWARD, his son, came with all the ado 
Of the warfares of Wallace and Balliol and Bruce, 
With now and then triumph, and now and then truce, 



rss*^^" 




,c^_ 



Edward I I . 



Q> 




— 25 



Till the seventh year dawned of the centuries' teens, 
And his son, EDWARD SECOND, on Isabel leans,- 
A monarch most weak; but the curse of his life 
Through his twenty years' reign was his Jezebel wife. 




p 










E cl w a r cl 
13*7 


III- 

— 1377- 






27 



Then his son, EDWARD THIRD, and Philippa the fair, 
For fifty years fought at Crecy and Poitiers, 
And o'er Balliol and Bruce; nor before then, nor since, 
Braver warrior was seen than their son, the Black Prince, 



>fc> 




2 9 



Whose son, RICHARD SECOND, a minor, the rout 
Of Wat Tyler put down, but himself was put out 



3i — 



By his own cousin Hal, in thirteen ninety-nine, — 

John of Gaunt's son, King HENRY THE FOURTH 

of the line. 
Fourteen years the old wars he fought in his turn, 
And first gave the law that made heretics burn ; 
He built up the Church, not for God, but himself, 
And the Commons made strong, not for right, but for pelf. 
Yet he pensioned old Chaucer, be sure to remember, 
And died like a saint in Jerusalem Chamber. 



— 33 — 



His son, HENRY FIFTH, won at wild Agincourt,— 
Brave soldier, pure statesman, what would you have more? 




*H *yv VI • 

^ 14-2.1 — IH-tl- 



Q> 




35 



His son, HENRY SIXTH (in fourteen twenty-two 
An eight-months-old babe), took his wife from Anjou, 
Marguerite, but lost France through Orleans' brave maid; 
Fought rebellion at home, was defied by Jack Cade ; 
Now prisoner, now king, through the wars of the Roses; 
A pure, gentle scholar, in cloud his life closes; 
Last legal Lancastrian. — 




I I 



) Edward IV. 









G> 



William Cay^orj. 




37 — 



— Then to the throne 
King EDWARD THE FOURTH bore the White Rose 

alone, — 
Son of Richard of York, from third Edward descended; 
But in twelve years he died, and his kingly line ended 




Q. 



E J ward V • 

IV83 - IV83- 



©) 




-39 — 



By the murder of EDWARD THE FIFTH in the Tower, 
With his poor little brother, in one midnight hour, 



— 4i — 



That RICHARD THE THIRD, in fourteen eighty-three, 

Their uncle, assassin, base monarch might be; 

Though in two years, at Bosworth, his red sun went down. 




^D.SCovey— j A 



43 



And HENRY THE SEVENTH assumed England's 

crown. 
A Welshman, a Tudor, an offshoot of Lancaster, 
He flung off Bellona as far as man can cast her; 
Piled up gold, wed the daughter of Edward the Fourth, 
With his young Margaret bound King James of the North; 
With his Henry the Eighth White and Red Roses blended ; 
And thus, to your joy, my long ditty is ended. 




$ART * * 
TWO * 



45 



47 — 



Not so fast ! I am ordered again to the fore ; 
And when kings must be rhymed, there are kings in galore. 
In fifteen and nine HENRY EIGHTH brought the hope 
Of peace, and wrenched England away from the Pope. 
But fickle and savage and selfish, though able, 
He slew his best friends, who ate salt at his table; 
Killed two of six wives — if you think he was good, 
With his loves and his murders, why, you have Mr. 
Froude ! 




__ *4ir$3u 



49 — 



His son, EDWARD SIXTH, in fifteen forty-seven, 
For six shining years rose, a star in our heaven; 




1# 



/V\apy 



issj — issa- 



— Q) 




5i — 



Then his sisters, — poor MARY ! ill-nurtured, ill-mated, 
Learned, stupid, sincere, and right heartily hated, 









HJalW.j., n 



53 — 



Till the year fifty-eight; when uprose in her glory 
ELIZABETH, Queen of all art, song, and story, 
Proud maiden, great monarch. Ah! never a crown 
On the brow of a man shone with brighter renown! 
Strong-willed in the fire and the faults of her blood, 
Old England yet knows her as Queen Bess the Good. 



— 55 



JAMES FIRST, her far cousin, in sixteen and three, 

Proved a Tudor diluted in Stuart to be, — 

The rickety son of the Queen of the Scots. 

He escaped from Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder plots; 

Forced our Pilgrims and Puritans homeless to flee, 

From his bigoted tyranny, over the sea; 




e 



C^arlec 1. 

lbi5-lM- 







— 57 — 



But when he expired, in sixteen twenty-five, 

There were Puritans still left — at home and alive — 

His son, CHARLES THE FIRST, to the scaffold to 

bring, 
Who lied like a Stuart, but died like a king 



fef 




59 — 



In the year forty-nine, when forth with his sword 

Came OLIVER CROMWELL, "the Scourge of the 

Lord." 
Yet his country knows well that no king has bedecked her 
With loftier bays than her sturdy Protector, — 




Richard (^romvv/ell. 

lb58 — Jb bo. 




(Jeqeral M on ^ enterC JonJon. 






P 



' * 



M 



onfC 



— 6i — 



Held her high for nine years; then the power he had won 
Gave in death to the weak hand of RICHARD, his son, 
Who cared not for honors, or army, or throne. 



— 6 3 



So, in sixteen and sixty, came back to his own, 
CHARLES SECOND, with welcome most loyal and 

glad, — 
Kindly, careless, and witty, false, clever, and bad, 
For twenty-five years, then died with urbanity; 



„ : 




Flight of Jame^U 



6 5 - 



And JAMES SECOND, his brother, devoid of humanity, 
Dull, dogged, and cruel, sent Jeffreys to slaughter, 
Himself soon sent right-about over the water. 



•*\J 







(2. 



•5 



Williai^ 

and 




IB 



-6 7 - 



Remember the year of sixteen eighty-eight, 

When his good daughter, MARY, and WILLIAM the Great 

Of Orange, both Stuarts, born cousins, began 

Fourteen years of freedom, — 



-6 9 - 



— which simple QUEEN ANNE 
Carried honestly on for a full dozen years; 



,/,, //'■ — - 




"W 



WIS 




7i 



Until brave GEORGE THE FIRST, the Elector, appears; 
Not much of a king, but enough, it was granted, 
To keep out the Stuarts, — the only thing wanted, — 
Though the Stuart in Hanover blood was alone 
The force that bore him to the proud island throne. 




,"*** . v French and Indian war? ^^-^Z' 



— 73 



Thus from twenty and seven to seventeen sixty, 

His son, GEORGE THE SECOND, on the throne firmly 

fixed he, 
Whose brave, stolid rule would have been far more sinister 
If he had not been led by a wise wife and minister. 

















Q) 




75 



His grandson, GEORGE THIRD, the next sixty years 

stood 
In royal estate, stubborn, honest, and good. 
We should be ungrateful to pass coldly by 
The dear King who gave us our Fourth of July! 




& 












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or 3* 


IV- 

182.0 - 


-»83o. 





77 



Of his son, GEORGE THE FOURTH, the less said 

the better: 
For his reign of ten years is Old England no debtor. 



— 79 — 



Nor can WILLIAM THE FOURTH be thought over- 
much given 
To kingcraft, though King until thirty and seven. 




./ 








— 8i — 



Then welcome VICTORIA ! heir of each grace 

And each virtue that marked all the kings of her race; 

Not alone in the East is she greatest and best, 

We own the sweet sway of Victoria, West! 

By her womanly worth, without contest or cost, 

She has won back the empire her grandfather lost. 

Her white hand was peace when our trouble was sore; 

By that sign, she is queen of our hearts evermore. 

The liegance of love sea nor sword shall dissever. 

God's blessing be on her for ever and ever! 



